Sorcery by J Finley Hurley tries to provide a scientific basis for good old fashioned sorcery. The kind witch doctors and others have used for centuries to kill and cure. The Law of Attraction, also known as The Secret, claims to provide a way to achieve effortless achievement of life goals. The two technologies are similar at base but have important differences.

Here I will use Sorcery as my source for sorcery and mainly The power of Your Unconscious Mind by Murphy as my source for the Law of attraction. Each covers similar territory but from a different perspective. There are also elements that remind me of Robert Anton Wilson's Prometheus Rising, a book recommended by magician Dusty Miller that appears to have vanished from my shelves with out my knowledge. The Law of Attraction is I think more closely related to Bonewitz fundamental law of magic that Reality is a Function of belief, and some relationship to Jung's theory of archetypes.

Murphy ( nothing to do with Murphy's law but a nice coincidence) and Finlay Hurley both assume magic is done by the subconscious mind, that the powers of the subconscious can be used by the conscious mind and that the subconscious has great powers, and the greatest power over the owner's body. This matches what Law of attraction people tell me, that conscious belief achieves nothing, it is unconscious or visceral belief does the work.

If I had to  sum up each approach in a nutshell, I would say that sorcery is a technology that uses tools like ritual, rhythm  and entrainment to harness the powers of the unconscious. It has no  intrinsic moral compass and can be used to kill or cure. The Law of Attraction ( or Manifestation as it is also called) is a far harder system, more a way of life, that has built in ethical safeguards. These safeguards become  internalised and  work because the practitioner has built them into their unconscious. Much of the literature on Manifestation has a ring of New Age and is closer to Mysticism. This, together with an implicit monotheism in  large parts of the  literature (“God” being replaced by “The Universe” for example)  can produce resistance.

A sorcerer who wanted to attract money or a mate would carry out some form of ritual  making sure the time and place were right. The ritual need not be complex. in the early 20th Century one blues player went from incompetent to genius by going to a crossroads at midnight and playing a guitar with the aim of selling his soul to the devil.

Manifestation of money or mate sounds much easier.  There are only three steps
1.Know what you want
2.Know you already have it
3.Let go of your desire ( i,e have faith)

This is NOT easier.  To do this needs a lot of work on yourself to remove unconscious resistance, yet people who work at this long enough seem  to find barriers melting away.

The historical fact that sorcerers can harm others with no harm to themselves is proof that the safeguards in the belief system of the Law of Attraction are not a fundamental property of the universe. It also seems to be a fact that those who work on the Law of Attraction do not want to harm others and find themselves threatened by others far less often. And when their Manifestation fails it seems to produce a consolation prize more valuable than the original goal: of course it may be that the process of manifesting changes the practitioner so that the original goal is unimportant.

Do not regard the safeguards in the Manifestation belief system as goody-goody stuff. They protect the practitioner as well as their target. Suppose for example you want money and cast a spell and your favourite aunt then dies in a plane crash and you get the insurance money. Suppose that bein in lust with your neighbour you cast a spell and it works. End result. Two divorces, possibly a death, and you end up remarried to someone you then find you hate. The statements you read that something will manifest only if it is best for all prevent this sort of mess. However they can also be a way of denying responsibility for your own actions.

Murphy and many of the Manifestation  people seem to view the unconscious as like a computer program with many  bits of junk code that have grown up over the years. It is basically an automaton  that obeys orders but is so complex that what you tell it is not what it understands. A desire for money may hit a routine that says “block calls like this as caller does not deserve it”

Finley Hurley however seems to consider the Unconscious as a being with a personality. This is closer to Jung's  theories of the deep unconscious. In this picture  the unconscious is very powerful but very susceptible to suggestion especially from others. This is why many would be entrepreneurs nev er start a business. Their unconscious hears from others “Who do you think you are?”, “YOU???” and so on and frustrates the effort of the conscious mind.  It may also have its own agenda, in which survival of the body is not top priority. If you  think that odd think of a samurai committing Hara Kiri to preserve their honour.

There is a tension between sorcery and the law of attraction that needs to be resolved. Sorcery can be used to heal but  Manifestation can also be used to make sure healing is not needed. I will use either as needed while trying to ensure I cause minimum necessary harm to  others and myself. It is impossible to go through life without harming something: curing plague involves killing bacteria for instance, so minimal harm is the best we can do. But I am clear: I am choosing not to harm others if I can avoid it. Killing an opponent is inelegant. Making  them an ally or friend is better.